(i) THK PliRSIAN COTTONS. 



These cottons, as far as they have been observed, fall into 

 two groups. The first of these includes those types falling into 

 Todaro's group Sub-sectio Indica (Watts' Section II, Fuzzy 

 Seeded cottons with United Bracteoles), which may be termed 

 the Asiatic group of cottons, while the latter belongs to that 

 author's Sub-sectio Magnibracteata (Watt's Section III, Fuzzy 

 Seeded cottons with free Bracteoles). To this latter belong 

 those types which are found widely cultivated in Egypt and 

 America^ and members of this group are also found in India. 

 The representatives of this latter group, both in India and Persia, 

 are most closely allied to the American types of Upland Cotton, 

 G. hirsutumi L. That this is so in the case of India is not 

 surprising. For more than a century there have been repeated 

 importations of cotton seed from America which have left their 

 mark on the country in the wide distribution of scattered plants 

 of this type, though its cultivation on an extended scale is only 

 here and there maintained. The presence of this type in Persia 

 is not so readily understood. The transportation of seed of 

 agricultural plants has constituted a marked feature of caravan 

 routes in time past, and in countries where these form the sole 

 line of intercommunication, and it is, therefore, somewhat sur- 

 prising that the Egyptian types, with their great reputation, 

 have not found their way to Persia by this means. The single 

 recorded case of an attempt to grow the Egyptian plant appears 

 to have resulted in failure {see below, p. 109). 



The types belonging to the former group are not numerous 

 and are all closely related to G. herbaceum, Linn. This specimen 

 is described under this name by Parlatore* and Todaro.f by the 



' Sp. (lei Cotoni. 



t Rl. Cult. .l«i Coloiii, 



